IRLF 


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MAN  HOFFMAN  JOMNE 


Of  this  edition  of  «  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet »  three 
hundred  and  fifty  copies  have  been  printed  on 
Marais  hand-made  paper. 


LINCOLN 
AND  HIS  CABINET 


A  LECTURE 

DELIVERED  ON  TUESDAY,  MARCH  10,  1800,  BEFORE  THE 
NEW  HAVEN  COLONY  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 


BY 

CHARLES   ANDERSON   DANA 

ASSISTANT  SECRETARY  OF  WAR,  1863-65 

\ 

t    *    J 


CLEVELAND  AND  NEW  YORK 

PRINTED  AT  THE  DE  VINNE  PRESS  FOR 

PAUL  LEMPERLY,  F.  A.  BILLIARD 

AND  FRANK  E.  HOPKINS 

MDCCCXCVI 


Copyright,  1896,  by  C.  A.  DANA. 

The  portrait  of  President  Lincoln  and  the  repro 
duction  of  «  The  First  Reading  of  the  Emanci 
pation  Proclamation))  are  from  the  paintings 
by  Mr.  Frank  B.  Carpenter,  and  are  used  with 
his  kind  permission. 


^VAX^V^.C-*'' 


LINCOLN  AND  HIS  CABINET 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  1861-65.  Born 
in  Hardin  County,  Kentucky,  February  12, 1809 ; 
died  at  Washington,  April  15,  1865. 

WILLIAM  HENRY  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State 
1861-69.  Born  at  Florida,  New  York,  May  16, 
1801;  died  at  Auburn,  New  York,  October  10, 

1872. 

SALMON  PORTLAND  CHASE,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  1861-64.  Born  at  Cornish,  New 
Hampshire,  January  13,  1808  ;  died  at  New 
York,  May  7,  1873. 


397749 


WILLIAM  PITT  FESSENDEN,  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  1864-65.  Born  at  Boscawen,  New 
Hampshire,  October  16,  1806;  died  at  Portland, 
Maine,  September  8,  1869. 

SIMON  CAMERON,  Secretary  of  War  1861-62. 
Born  in  Lancaster  County,  Pennsylvania,  March 
8,  1799;  died  there  June  26,  1889. 

EDWIN  McMASTERS  STANTON,  Secretary  of 
War  1862-68.  Born  at  Steubenville,  Ohio,  De 
cember  19,  1814  ;  died  at  Washington,  Decem 
ber  24,  1869. 

GIDEON  WELLES,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  1861- 
69.  Born  at  Glastonbury,  Connecticut,  July  1, 
1802;  died  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  February 
11,  1878. 

CALEB  BLOOD  SMITH,  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
1861-62.  Born  at  Boston,  Massachusetts,  April 
16,  1808;  died  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  January 
7,  1864. 


JOHN  PALMER  USHER,  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
1863-65.  Born  at  Brookfield,  New  York,  Jan 
uary  9,  1816  ;  died  at  Philadelphia,  Pennsyl 
vania,  April  13,  1889. 

EDWARD  BATES,  Attorney-General  1861-64. 
Born  at  Belmont,  Virginia,  September  4,  1793; 
died  at  St.  Louis,  March  25,  1869. 

JAMES  SPEED,  Attorney-General  1864-66.  Born 
in  Jefferson  County,  Kentucky,  March  11,  1812  ; 
died  there  June  25,  1887. 

MONTGOMERY  BLAIR,  Postmaster-General  1861- 
64.  Born  in  Franklin  County,  Kentucky,  May 
10,  1813  ;  died  at  Silver  Spring,  Maryland,  July 
27,  1883. 

WILLIAM  DENNISON,  Postmaster-General  1864- 
66.  Born  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  November  23, 
1815  ;  died  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  June  15,  1882. 


M«2*^ 


>• 


LINCOLN  AND  HIS  CABINET 


HAVE  been  invited  to 
tell  you  some  recollec 
tions  of  impressions 
that  were  made  upon 
me  during  the  period 
when  I  was  serving  at 
Washington  and  in  the  field  under  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  and  Edwin  M.  Stanton.  I 
felt  no  special  anxiety  to  perform  this 
duty,  but  it  seemed  to  me  as  though  I 
ought  not  to  decline  it.  The  number  of 


those  who  knew  those  men  face  to  face, 
and  saw  them  intimately  during  the  time 
that  tried  men's  souls,  is  already  small, 
and  growing  smaller;  and  it  is  a  duty  to 
record  the  impressions  and  to  narrate 
the  facts  of  those  times  and  of  those 
relations. 

The  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln  was 
brought  about  by  a  dissension  in  the 
Democratic  party.  It  was  divided,  and 
the  Republican  party  was  united,  and 
the  consequence  was  his  election.  The 
great  question  at  issue  in  that  election, 
although  I  do  not  think  it  was  formally 
stated  in  the  platforms  of  the  parties, 
was  this:  Shall  the  owners  of  slaves  en 
joy  the  right  of  taking  their  slaves  into 
the  Territories  of  the  United  States  that 
are  now  free,  and  keeping  them  there? 
10 


The  slave-owners  claimed  that  right. 
Slaves  were  property.  They  were  like 
other  property,  and  why  should  their 
owners  be  denied  the  right  of  taking 
their  property  into  the  Territories,  when 
a  Northern  man  could  take  his  pro 
perty—his  horses,  his  oxen,  whatever  he 
possessed?  The  slaves  were  their  oxen; 
they  were  their  chattels;  and  they  in 
sisted  that  they  ought  to  have  the  right 
of  taking  them  into  the  Territories,  and 
keeping  them  there  as  slaves.  That  was 
the  fundamental  question  of  the  election. 
And  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  the 
South  said:  «Now  we  are  denied  this 
right,  we  will  break  up  the  government; 
we  will  secede;  we  will  withdraw.))  That 
right,  too,  they  claimed  as  a  constitu 
tional  principle.  /  No  Northerner  had 
11 


claimed  it,  though  some  ardent  partizans 
had  threatened  it;  but  several  of  the 
Southern  States  now  set  it  up  as  an  origi 
nal,  inalienable  right.  They  claimed  that 
the  refusal  to  them  of  the  right  to  take 
their  property  with  them  when  they  went 
to  live  in  one  of  the  new  Territories  was 
sufficient  occasion  for  the  withdrawal 
from  the  Union  of  the  slaveholding 
States,  and  for  the  breaking  up  of  the 
government. 

That  question  was  to  be  determined 
by  war,  and  as  soon  as  Abraham  Lincoln 
was  elected  they  began  to  prepare  for 
war;  and  when  he  became  President  we 
began,  on  our  side,  to  prepare  for  war. 
Previous  to  his  inauguration  there  had 
been  no  preparation.  When  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  inaugurated  as  President  his  first 
12 


act  was  to  name  his  cabinet;  and  it  was 

fit   thft   timq   that.   fy> 


had  put  into  the  cabinet  every  man  who 
had  competed  with  him  for  the  nomi- 
njition  in  the  Republican  National  Con-r 
vention.  The  first  in  importance,  in 
consequence,  was  William  H.  Seward,  of 
New  York,  who  had  been  Mr.  Lincoln's 
most  prominent  competitor.  It  had 
been  feared  by  many  of  those  who  were 
opposed  to  Mr.  Seward's  friends—  he 

V  v 

had  no  personal  opposition,  but  some  of 
his  friends  had  a  good  deal—  it  was 
feared  by  those  who  were  opposed  to  his 
friends  that  if  he  became  President  his 
friends  would  run  the  government,  and 
run  it  for  purposes  that  all  might  not 
approve.  He  was  made  Secretary  of 
State. 

13 


It  is  worth  while  to  notice  this:  the 
great  opposition  against  Mr.  Seward  was 
because  he  was  a  New  Yorker,  and  the 
Republican  party  in  New  York  was  under 
the  control,  more  or  less  decided,  of  what 
is  called  a  « boss.»  And  they  said  there 
should  n't  be  any  boss,  but  that  the  party 
should  direct  itself.  Well,  exactly  what 
that  means  I  have  not  been  able  to  under 
stand.  An  army  without  a  general  is 
of  no  use,  and  a  ship  without  a  captain 
does  n't  get  navigated  safely.  I  notice, 
too,  that  the  class  of  politicians  who  are 
most  strenuous  against  bosses  are  those 
who  are  not  able  to  control  for  themselves 
the  boss  who  happens  to  be  in  power  in 
their  district  or  their  State.  At  any  rate, 
that  objection,  managed  by  skilful  politi 
cians,  and  aided  by  Mr.  Lincoln's  personal 

14 


popularity  in  the  West,  availed  sufficiently 
to  deprive  Mr.  Seward  of  the  nomination. 

The  second  man  in  importance  to  be  put 
into  the  cabinet  was  Mr.  Chase  of  Ohio. 
He  was  a  very  able,  noble,  and  spotless 
statesman,  a  man  who  would  have  beeh 
worthy  of  the  best  days  of  the  old  Ro 
man  republic.  He  had  been  a  candidate, 
though  less  conspicuous  than  Seward; 
and  he  was  also  a  candidate  against 
whom  the  opposition  that  had  been 
raised  against  Mr.  Seward  would  not 
have  availed,  because,  while  Mr.  Seward 
had  a  friend  who  was  the  boss  of  the  Re 
publican  party  in  New  York,  Mr.  Chase 
bossed  it  himself  in  Ohio. 

Then  there  was  Mr.  Cameron  of  Penn 
sylvania.  He  was  made  Secretary  of  War. 
A  very  able  man,  a  practical  politician 

15 


of  immense  knowledge  and  resource,  in 
earlier  days  a  friend  of  General  Jackson, 
one  of  the  first  and  most  decided  states 
men  to  embrace  the  Republican  cause  and 
to  advocate  the  Republican  doctrine.  He 
held  the  office  of  Secretary  of  War  only 
a  little  over  a  year,  I  think,  and  there  was 
an  outcry  against  him,  because  they  said 
he  was  buying  too  many  guns,  too  many 
arms;  he  was  spending  too  much  money. 
And  those  who  were  against  bosses  were 
against  this  expenditure  because  they 
said  they  did  n't  think  it  could  be  quite 
correct.  But  all  these  things  were  inves 
tigated  afterward,  and  nothing  was  ever 
proved  against  Simon  Cameron  except 
this:  that  he  was  a  man  with  a  manly 
heart  in  his  bosom,  that  he  appreciated 
the  magnitude  of  the  -  contest  that  was 

16 


upon  us,  and  prepared  for  it  accordingly. 
His  preparations  were  equal  to  the  danger 
at  hand,  and,  instead  of  being  decried,  he 
ought  to  have  had,  and  finally  did  obtain, 
the  full  credit  to  which  he  was  entitled  as 
a  wise,  patriotic,  and  provident  statesman. 
Next,  Mr.  Bates  of  Missouri  was  made 
Attorney-General.  He  also  had  been  run 
a  good  deal  as  a  candidate  for  the  Presi 
dential  nomination  against  Mr.  Seward, 
but  there  had  never  been  any  great  prob 
ability  that  he  would  get  it.  He  was  a 
most  eloquent  speaker,  and  a  very  fair 
lawyer,  and  he  served  out  his  time  in  the 
cabinet  until  the  end  of  the  administra 
tion.  He  was  an  amiable  and  a  gifted 
man,  entirely  creditable  and  satisfactory, 
without  possessing  any  extraordinary  ge 
nius  or  any  unusual  force  of  character. 

17 


Then  there  was  Mr.  Caleb  B.  Smith  of 
Indiana,  who  was  Secretary  of  the  Inte 
rior,  and  Montgomery  Blair  of  Maryland, 
a  Democrat  of  the  old  school,  who  was 
Postmaster-General;  both  eminent,  able, 
useful  men. 

I  must  not  forget,  especially  here  in 
New  Haven,  in  this  rapid  review  of  the 
assistants  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  members 
of  the  cabinet,  to  speak  of  the  Connec 
ticut  member,  Gideon  Welles.  He  was 
Secretary  of  the  Navy;  and  I  am  happy, 
at  this  distance,  to  testify  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  an  excellent  Secretary.  *  He 
was  a  man  of  no_  decorations;  there  was 
no  noise  in  the  street  when  he  went  along; 
but  he  understood  his  duty,  and  he  did  it 
efficiently,  continually,  and  unvaryingly. 
Other  men  were  more  conspicuous,  be- 

18 


L 


- 


cause  they  were  brought  more  immedi 
ately  in  contact  with  the  people.  The 
navy  is  off  at  sea,  and  we  don't  see  all 
the  time  what  it  is  doing.  I  am  able  to 
declare  that  Mr.  Welles  was  a  perfectly 
faithful,  able,  devoted,  and  successful 
public  officer.  The  navy  under  his  con 
trol  was  far  more  efficient,— it  is  true  it 
was  larger,— and  more  energetic  than  it 
had  ever  been  before  in  our  day.  He 
was  a  satisfactory  and  substantial  mem 
ber  of  the  government,  and  was  always 
creditable  to  the  State  that  sent  him 
forth. 

When  Mr.  Cameron  went  out  of  the 
cabinet,  Mr.  Lincoln,  following  the  advice 
both  of  Cameron  and  of  Charles  Sumner, 
selected  as  his  successor  in  the  War  De 
partment  Mr.  Edwin  M.  Stanton.  Stan- 

19 


ton  was  an  old  States'-rights  Democrat. 
He  had  never  voted  anything  but  the 
Democratic  ticket  up  to  that  time.  He 
was  a  very  extraordinary  man,  and  it  was 
through  him  that  I  came  to  be  put  into 
the  War  Department,  and  had  the  oppor 
tunities  of  acquiring  the  various  infor 
mation  that  I  hope  to  lay  before  you  this 
evening. 

Mr.  Stanton  was  a  short,  thick,  dark 
man,  with  a  very  large  head  and  a  mass 
of  black  hair.  He  was  very  intense,  and 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  men  that  I  ever 
met.  He  was  entirely  absorbed  in  his 
duties.  His  energy  was  something  almost 
superhuman,  and  when  he  took  hold  of 
the  War  Department  the  armies  seemed 
to  grow,  and  they  certainly  gained  in 
force  and  vim  and  thoroughness.  The 

20 


time  of  preparation,  which  to  us  had  be 
fore  seemed  so  long  and  tedious  that  we  t-x 
were  almost  losing  hope— that  time  came 
to  an  end,  and  the  time  of  action  began. 
I  said  that  Mr.  Stanton  was  a  very  elo 
quent  man.  In  order  to  illustrate  that,  if 
you  will  allow  me,  I  will  tell  a  little  story. 
In  the  last  year  of  the  war  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  had  hanging  around  it  a 
man,  a  sort  of  peddler— I  think  his  name 
may  have  been  Morse,  but  I  don't  remem 
ber  positively;  it  was  something  like  that. 
He  went  back  and  forward  into  Virginia. 
He  would  go  down  into  the  rebel  lines,  and 
then  he  would  come  back.  When  he  went 
down  he  went  in  the  character  of  a  man 
who  had  entirely  hoodwinked  the  Wash 
ington  authorities  and  deluded  them ;  and, 
in  spite  of  them,  or  by  some  corruption 
21 


or  other,  he  always  brought  with  him  into 
the  Confederate  lines  something  that  the 
people  wanted  down  there,  some  dresses 
for  the  ladies,  or  some  little  luxury  that 
they  could  n't  get  otherwise. 

These  things  that  he  took  with  him 
were  always  supervised  by  government 
agents  before  he  went  away.  Then  he 
would  come  back  again,  and  bring  us  a 
lot  of  valuable  information.  As  you  see, 
he  was  a  kind  of  spy  for  both  sides.  So 
he  found  a  good  thing  in  it,  and  we  found 
a  good  thing  in  it,  because  in  that  way 
we  got  a  great  deal  of  information  about 
the  strength  of  armies,  about  the  prepa 
rations  and  the  movements  of  the  en 
emy,  and  so  on;  and  it  was  thought  to  be 
sufficiently  useful  to  allow  this  thing  to 
go  on.  Well,  at  last  he  came  back  and 


went  to  Baltimore,  and  got  his  outfit  to 
take  down  South;  and  when  he  came  up 
the  chief  detective  of  the  War  Depart 
ment  examined  his  goods  carefully,  and 
found  that  he  had  got  lots  of  things  that 
we  could  not  allow  him  to  take.  We  had 
all  his  bills,  telling  where  he  had  bought 
these  things  in  Baltimore.  They  amounted 
to  perhaps  $20,000  or  $25,000,  or  more. 
A  good  deal  of  this  stuff  was  military 
goods  and  uniforms,  and  this,  we  said,  was 
altogether  too  contraband.  So  we  con 
fiscated  the  contraband  goods,  and  put 
Morse  in  prison;  and  one  afternoon  Colo 
nel  Taylor,  a  very  valuable  military  officer, 
and  a  nephew  of  President  Taylor,  went 
over  to  Baltimore,  and  arrested  the  prin 
cipal  merchants  of  that  town,  who  had 
sold  these  goods  to  Morse,— the  chief  dry- 

23 


goods  dealers  and  fancy  merchants,— so 
that  no  lady  could  go  out  and  buy  even 
a  pair  of  gloves  the  next  day,  for  the 
shops  were  all  shut.  Presently  a  depu 
tation  from  Baltimore  came  over  to  see 
President  Lincoln,  to  say  that  this  was  a 
great  outrage,  and  that  these  gentlemen, 
most  respectable  merchants,  faultless 
citizens,  ought  all  to  be  set  instantly 
at  liberty  and  damages  paid  them.  Mr. 
Lincoln  sent  the  deputation  over  to  the 
War  Department,  and  Mr.  Stanton  sent 
for  me.  He  said:  «A11  Baltimore  is 
coming  here.  Sit  down  here,  and  hear 
the  discussion  we  shall  have.»  So  they 
came  in,  the  bank  presidents  and  boss 
merchants  of  Baltimore.  There  must 
have  been  at  least  $50,000,000  in  the 
deputation. 

24 


The  gentlemen  sat  down  around  the 
fire  in  the  Secretary's  office,  and  began 
to  make  their  speeches,  detailing  the  cir 
cumstances  and  the  wickedness  of  this 
outrage.  There  was  no  ground  for  it,  no 
justification.  After  half  a  dozen  of  them 
had  spoken,  Mr.  Stanton  asked  one  after 
another  if  he  had  anything  more  to  say, 
and  they  all  said  no.  Then  Stanton  began 
and  delivered  the  most  eloquent  speech 
that  I  ever  listened  to.  He  described  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  for  which  he  said 
there  was  no  justification.  Being  beaten 
in  an  election  was  no  reason  for  destroy 
ing  the  government.  Then  he  went  on  to 
the  fact  that  half  a  million  of  our  young 
men  had  been  laid  in  untimely  graves  by 
this  conspiracy  of  the  slave  interest.  He 
described  the  whole  conspiracy  in  the 

25 


most  solemn  and  impressive  terms,  and 
then  he  depicted  the  offense  that  this  man 
Morse,  aided  by  these  several  merchants, 
had  committed.  He  said:  « Gentlemen, 
if  you  would  like  to  examine  the  bills  of 
what  he  was  taking  to  the  enemy,  here 
they  are.»  And  when  he  had  finished, 
these  gentlemen,  without  answering  a 
word,  got  up,  and,  one  by  one,  went  away. 
That  was  the  only  speech  I  ever  listened 
to  that  cleared  out  the  entire  audience. 
Well,  that  's  the  sort  of  man  Stanton 
was.  He  was  impulsive,  warm-blooded, 
very  quick  in  execution,  perhaps  not  al 
ways  infallible  in  judgment.  I  never  knew 
a  man  who  could  do  so  much  work  in  a 
given  time.  He  was  a  nervous  man,  a  man 
of  imagination,  a  man  utterly  absorbed  in 
the  idea  of  the  republic  one  and  indivis- 

26 


ible;  and  he  lived  for  it,  wore  himself  out 
in  the  service,  and  shortly  after  he  ceased 
to  serve  in  that  office  he  passed  into  an 
other  world,  entirely  exhausted,  consumed 
by  his  devotion  to  public  duties.  That 
was  the  kind  of  men  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
around  him— not  all  like  Stanton,  not  all 
like  Cameron,  not  all  like  Chase,  but  all 
faithful  to  their  duty,  all  Americans,  all 
patriots. 

Mr.  Sewurd,  for  instance,  possessed  a 
great,  subtle,  far-reaching  intelligence. 
He  was  an  optimist.  He  had  imagination. 
He  was  reaching  out  always  toward  the 
future,  and  dwelling  upon  it.  The  treaty 
by  which  we  acquired  Alaska  was  his 
doing.  He  also  negotiated  and  arranged 
the  treaty  that  Congress  would  not  ap 
prove  for  the  acquisition  of  St.  Thomas  in 

27 


the  West  Indies.  He  believed  that  North 
America  should  be  one  and  united— one 
government,  one  flag,  one  power.  His  idea 
was  that  the  islands  of  the  Antilles,  and 
the  whole  continent  up  to  the  frozen  re 
gions  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  should  all  live 
and  grow  great  and  mighty  with  that 
beautiful  emblem,  the  Stars  and  Stripes, 
floating  over  them. 

Probably  in  the  administration  Mr. 
Seward  had  the  most  cultivated  and  com 
prehensive  intellect.  He  was  n't  equal  to 
Mr.  Lincoln,  because,  as  I  have  said,  he 
was  altogether  an  optimist.  He  did  n't 
believe  any  permanent  injury  could  hap 
pen  to  anybody  so  long  as  the  Stars  and 
Stripes  were  there.  During  the  war  it 
was  always  said  that  he  expected  to 
bring  back  the  seceding  States  by  a 

28 


friendly  act  of  Congress,  or  some  device 
of  negotiation.  That  was  probably  a 
fault  in  his  judgment;  yet,  take  him  for 
all  in  all,  it  would  be  difficult  to  match 
him  among  living  statesmen,  or  among 
the  statesmen  of  the  world.  He  was  an 
American  in  earnest.  He  believed  in  that 
democracy  which  is  democracy  indeed. 
He  believed  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  his  one  desire  was  that 
its  blessings  should  be  extended  and  made 
perpetual  over  all  this  continent.  I  look 
back  upon  him  with  intense  gratitude. 
He  set  up  the  landmarks  toward  which  we 
are  to  come,  the  boundaries  which  we  are 
to  attain  to.  He  proclaimed  the  prin 
ciple  of  continental  unity,  and  that  unity 
he  would  found  in  freedom,  in  progress, 
and  in  improvement  of  every  nature. 


Such  were  the  principal  men  by  whom 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  surrounded.  They  were 
very  independent  men.  They  were  not 
always  satisfied  with  his  decisions,  with 
his  action;  but  he  was  always  master 
B|of  the  house.  1  There  was  no  pretension 
about  Abraham  Lincoln;  he  did  n't  put 
on  any  airs,  and  I  never  heard  him  say  a 
harsh  word  to  anybody.  I  never  heard 
him  speak  a  word  of  complaint  even. 
These  other  gentlemen,  the  members  of 
the  cabinet,  like  human  beings  in  gen 
eral,  were  not  pleased  with  everything. 
Much  was  imperfect;  much  was  not  or 
dered  in  the  best  way;  much,  perhaps, 
might  have  been  done  better  if  4;hey 
individually  had  had  charge  of  it.  Not 
so  with  the  President.  He  was  most 
calm,  equable,  uncomplaining,  and,  to 


my  mind,  one  of  the  happiest  men  that 
I  have  ever  known.  He  always  had  a 
pleasant  word  for  everybody.  What  he 
said  showed  the  profoundest  thought, 
even  when  he  was  joking.  JHej^emed 
to  see  every  side  of  every  question.  He 
never  was  impatient,  he  never  was  in  a 
hurry,  and  he  never  tried  to  hurry  any 
body  else.  To  every  one  he  was  plea 
sant  and  cordial;  yet  they  all  felt  that 
it  was  his  word  that  went  at  last,  and 
until  he  had  decided,  the  case  had  n't 
been  decided,  and  the  final  orders  not 
issued  yet. 

But,  before  going  further,  let  me  en 
deavor  to  give  those  in  this  audience 
who  never  saw  Mr.  Lincoln  some  idea 
of  his  personal  appearance.  He  was 
a  very  tall  man— six  feet  four  inches. 

31 


His  complexion  was  dark,  his  eyes  and 
hair  black,  and,  though  he  was  of  lean, 
spare  habit,  I  should  suppose  he  must 
have  weighed  over  two  hundred  pounds. 
He  was  a  man  of  fine  fiber,  and  thus  a 
brain  of  superior  power  was  contained 
in  a  small  but  rather  elongated  skull. 
Horatio  Seymour  once  spoke  of  him  as 
a  man  «  who  wore  a  No.  7  hat  and  a  No. 
14  boot.»  His  movements  were  rather 
angular,  but  never  awkward,  and  he  was 
never  burdened  with  that  frequent  curse 
of  unfortunate  genius,  the  dreadful  op 
pression  of  petty  self-consciousness. 

It  was  a  most  remarkable  character, 
that  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  had  the 
most  comprehensive,  the  most  judicious 
mind;  he  was  the  least  faulty  in  his  con 
clusions  of  any  man  that  I  have  ever 


STANTON.  CHASE. 


'RESIDENT  LINCOLN. 


THE   FIRST   READING   OF  THE   EMANCIP. 

PAINTED   AT  THE    WHITE   HOU£ 

In  the  upper  left-hand  corner  the  artist  introduced  a  portrait 
The  portrait  over  the  mantelpie 


BLAIR. 


SEWARD. 


:   PROCLAMATION   BEFORE   THE   CABINET. 

MR.  FRANK   B.  CARPENTER   IN    1864. 

non  Cameron,  first  Secretary  of  War  under  President  Lincoln. 
)f  ex-President  Andrew  Jackson. 


known.  He  never  stepped  too  soon,  and 
he  never  stepped  too  late.  Just  con 
sider,  if  you  can,  the  problem  that  was 
before  him  when  he  became  President: 
One  third  of  the  country  in  open  rebel 
lion—not  merely  in  rebellion  on  account 
of  this  peculiar  property  in  slaves  that 
we  have  spoken  of,  but  also  because 
its  people  had  an  intense  conviction  that 
they  had  the  right,  under  the  Consti 
tution,  to  leave  the  Union  when  they 
thought  it  was  advantageous  to  do  so. 

They  had  come  into  the  Union,  they 
had  accepted  the  Constitution,  and  they 
could  n't  admit  that  that  was  an  irrev 
ocable  transaction.  The  right  of  rebel 
lion  had  been  talked  of  in  every  quarter. 
Every  man  has  a  right  to  rebel,  we  were 
told,  if  only  he  is  willing  to  take  the 


consequences.  That  was  the  doctrine  of 
our  seceding  countrymen  in  the  South. 
They  were  defending  their  property  as 
we  would  defend  ours,  and  they  were 
defending  what  they  considered  to  be 
an  inherent  right,  the  right  of  every 
freeman  to  say  whether  he  will  submit 
to  the  government  that  is  over  him,  or 
rebel  and  take  the  consequences.  And 
I  am  bound  to  declare  that  the  most  of 
them  were  just  as  sincere  in  their  pur 
pose  and  their  passion  as  we  were  in 
ours. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  what  you  would 
call  an  educated  man.  The  college  that 
he  had  attended  was  that  which  a  man 
attends  who  gets  up  at  daylight  to  hoe 
the  corn,  and  sits  up  at  night  to  read 
the  best  book  he  can  find,  by  the  side 

34 


of  a  burning  pine-knot.  What  education 
he  had,  he  had  picked  up  in  that  way. 
He  had  read  a  great  many  books,  and  all 
the  books  that  he  had  read  he  knew. 
He  had  a  tenacious  memory,  just  as  he 
had  the  ability  to  see  the  essential  thing. 
He  never  took  an  unimportant  point  and 
went  off  upon  that;  but  he  always  laid 
hold  of  the  real  thing,  of  thej^aJLsLues- 
tion,  and  attended  to  that,  without  at 
tending  to  the  others  any  more  than 
was  indispensably  necessary. 

Thus,  while  we  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  an  uneducated  man,  uneducated  in 
the  sense  that  we  recognize  here  in 
New  Haven,  or  at  any  other  great  col 
lege  town,  he  yet  had  a  singularly  per 
fect  education  in  regard  to  everything 
that  concerns  the  practical  affairs  of 

35 


life.  His  judgment  was  excellent,  and\ 
his  information  was  always  accurate.} 
He  knew  what  the  thing  was.  He  was  a 
man  of  genius,  and,  contrasted  with  men 
of  education,  genius  will  always  carry 
the  day.  I  remember  very  well  going 
into  Mr.  Stanton's  room  in  the  War 
Department  on  the  day  of  the  Gettys 
burg  celebration,  and  he  said,  «Have 
you  seen  these  Gettysburg  speeches?)) 

«No,»  said  I;  «I  did  n't  know  you  had 
them.» 

He  said,  «  Yes;  and  the  people  will  be 
delighted  with  them.  Edward  Everett 
has  made  a  speech  that  will  make  three 
columns  in  the  newspapers,  and  Mr.  Lin 
coln  has  made  a  speech  of  perhaps  forty 
or  fifty  lines.  Everett's  is  the  speech 
of  a  scholar,  polished  to  the  last  possi- 


bility.  It  is  elegant  and  it  is  learned; 
but  Lincoln's  speech  will  be  read  by  a 
thousand  men  where  one  reads  Everett's, 
and  will  be  remembered  as  long  as  any 
body's  speeches  are  remembered  who 
speaks  in  the  English  language.)) 

That  was  the  truth.  If  you  will  com 
pare  those  two  speeches  now  you  will  get 
an  idea  how  superior  genius  is  to  educa 
tion;  how  superior  that  intellectual  facul 
ty  is  which  sees  the  vitality  of  a  question, 
and  knows  how  to  state  it;  how  superior 
that  intellectual  faculty  is  which  regards 
everything  with  the  fire  of  earnestness 
in  the  soul,  with  the  relentless  purpose 
of  a  heart  devoted  to  objects  beyond 
literature. 

Another  remarkable  peculiarity  of  Mr. 
Lincoln's  was  that  he  seemed  to  have  no 

37 


illusions.  He  had  no  freakish  notions 
that  things  were  so,  or  might  be  so, 
when  they  were  not  so.  All  his  think 
ing  and  all  his  reasoning,  all  his  mind,  in 
short,  was  based  continually  upon  actual 
facts,  and  upon  facts  of  which,  as  I  said, 
he  saw  the  essence.  I  never  heard  him 
say  anything  that  was  not  so.  I  never 
heard  him  foretell  things;  he  told  what 
they  were,  but  I  never  heard  him  in 
timate  that  such  and  such  consequences 
were  likely  to  happen  without  the  conse 
quences  following.  I  should  say,  perhaps, 
that  his  greatest  quality  was  wisdom. 
And  that  is  something  superior  to  talent, 
superior  to  education.  I  do  not  think  it 
can  be  acquired.  He  had  it;  he  was  wise; 
he  was  not  mistaken;  he  saw  things  as 
they  were.  All  the  advice  that  he  gave 


was  wise,  it  was  judicious,  and  it  was  al 
ways  timely.  This  wisdom,  it  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  add,  had  its  animating  phi 
losophy  in  his  own  famous  words,  «  Withl  j  £ 
charity  toward  all,  with  malice  towar^  [ 
none.»  Or,  to  afford  a  more  extended 
illustration,  let  me  quote,  from  Nicolay 
and  Hay's  « History))  (vol.  vi,  p.  152), 
the  main  part  of  his  most  admirable 
letter  of  August  22,  1862,  to  Horace 
Greeley: 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the 
Union  unless  they  could  at  the  same  time 
save  slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  If 
there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union 
unless  they  could  at  the  same  time  destroy 
slavery,  I  do  not  agree  with  them.  My  par 
amount  object  in  this  struggle  is  to  save  the 
Union,  and  is  not  either  to  save  or  to  destroy 


slavery.  If  I  could  save  the  Union  without 
freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do  it ;  and  if  I 
could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves,  I 
would  do  it ;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also 
do  that.  What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the 
colored  race,  I  do  because  I  believe  it  helps 
to  save  the  Union ;  and  what  I  forbear,  I 
forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it  would 
help  to  save  the  Union.  I  shall  do  less 
whenever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am  doing 
hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  when 
ever  I  shall  believe  doing  more  will  help  the 
cause.  I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when 
shown  to  be  errors,  and  I  shall  adopt  new 
views  so  fast  as  they  shall  appear  to  be  true 
views.  I  have  here  stated  my  purpose  ac 
cording  to  my  view  of  official  duty ;  and  I 
intend  no  modification  of  my  oft-expressed 
personal  wish  that  all  men  everywhere  could 
be  free. 

40 


Another  remarkable  quality  was  his 
personal  kindness.  He  was  kind  at  heart, 
not  from  mere  politeness.  As  I  said,  I 
never  heard  him  say  an  unkind  thing 
about  anybody.  Now  and  then  he  would 
laugh  at  something  jocose  or  satirical 
that  somebody  had  done  or  said,  but  it 
was  always  pleasant  humor.  I  noticed 
his  sweetness  of  nature  particularly  with 
his  little  son,  a  child  at  that  time  perhaps 
seven  or  nine  years  old,  who  used  to  roam 
the  departments,  and  whom  everybody 
called  « Tad.»  He  had  a  defective  palate, 
and  could  n't  speak  very  plainly.  Often 
I  have  sat  by  his  father,  reporting  to  him 
about  some  important  matter  that  I  had 
been  ordered  to  inquire  into,  and  he  would 
have  this  boy  on  his  knee;  and,  while  he 
would  perfectly  understand  the  report, 

41 


the  striking  thing  about  him  was  his 
affection  for  the  child.  He  was  good  to 
everybody.  Once  there  was  a  great 
gathering  at  the  White  House  on  New 
Year's  day,  and  all  the  diplomats  came 
in  their  uniforms,  and  all  the  officers  of 
the  army  and  navy  in  Washington  were 
in  full  costume.  A  little  girl  of  mine 
said,  «Papa,  could  n't  you  take  me  over 
to  see  that?»  I  said  yes;  so  I  took  her 
over  and  put  her  in  a  corner,  where  she 
beheld  this  gorgeous  show.  When  it 
was  finished,  I  went  up  to  Mr.  Lincoln, 
and  said,  «I  have  a  little  girl  here  who 
wants  to  shake  hands  with  you.»  He 
went  over  to  her,  and  took  her  up  and 
kissed  her  and  talked  to  her.  She  will 
never  forget  it  if  she  lives  to  be  a  thou 
sand  years  old.  That  was  the  nature  of 

42 


the  man.  I  must  tell  another  story  to 
illustrate  the  same  point. 

Whenever  an  important  campaign  of 
the  armies  began  Mr.  Lincoln  liked  to 
send  me,  because  when  I  went,  with  my 
newspaper  experience,  he  got  a  clear  re 
port  of  everything  that  happened.  The 
generals  did  n't  like  to  sit  down,  after 
fighting  all  day,  and  write  a  report,  and 
they  were  always  glad  to  have  me  come 
to  them.  Well,  when  General  Grant  went 
out  for  the  campaign  in  the  Wilderness, 
—that  was  the  last  great  campaign, 
which  ended  in  the  surrender  of  Rich 
mond,— for  two  days  we  had  no  reports. 
One  evening  I  got  a  message  to  come  to 
the  War  Department.  There  I  found  the 
President  and  Mr.  Stanton. 

Mr.  Lincoln  said,   «We  are  troubled 

43 


about  this  business  down  in  the  Wilder 
ness.  We  don't  know  what  is  going  on. 
I  would  like  you  to  go  down.» 

I  said,  (('Certainly.)) 

«  How  soon  can  you  be  ready? »  said  he. 

I  said,  « It  will  take  twenty  minutes  to 
go  home  and  change  my  clothes,  and  get 
the  things  that  I  want  to  take,  and  get 
my  horse  saddled,  and  then  it  will  take 
twenty  minutes  to  get  a  train.  Besides, 
we  must  have  an  escort.)) 

«Well,»  said  he,  «you  are  willing  to 
go?)) 

«Why,  yes,»  I  said;  «I  am  delighted. 
I  want  to  see  it.» 

So  I  went  and  ordered  a  train,  got  my 
things  all  ready,  and  got  an  escort  pro 
vided  to  defend  the  train  after  we  had  got 
out  beyond  our  lines,  and  then  went  down 

44 


and  got  into  a  car.  Somehow  we  did  n't 
start,  and  presently  there  came  a  man  on 
horseback,  who  said  to  me,  «The  Presi 
dent  wants  you  at  the  War  Department.)) 
So  I  rode  back  to  the  War  Department, 
and  there  was  Mr.  Lincoln  with  Mr. 
Stanton.  The  President  said: 

« I  have  been  thinking  about  this,  Dana, 
and  I  don't  like  to  send  you.  There  is 
Jeb  Stuart,  with  his  cavalry,  roaming  over 
the  region  that  you  will  have  to  cross,  and 
I  am  afraid  to  have  you  go.» 

Said  I,  «  Mr.  Lincoln,  is  that  the  reason 
you  called  me  back  here?» 

«Yes,»  he  said;  «I  don't  like  to  have 
you  go.» 

I  said,  «I  don't  think  that  is  a  very 
good  reason,  because  I  have  a  good 
horse  and  forty  troopers,  and  we  are 

45 


able  to  run  if  they  are  too  many  for  us, 
and  if  they  are  not,  we  can  fight.)) 

«Well,»  said  he,  «I  am  glad  to  hear 
you  say  that,  because  I  really  want  you 
to  go,  but  I  could  n't  send  you  out  until 
I  felt  sure  that  you  were  entirely  will 
ing  yourself.)) 

« Well,»  I  answered,  « you  are  the  first 
general  that  ever  gave  orders  in  that 
way,  I  guess.» 

That  was  the  man— kindly  and  affec 
tionate  to  everybody.  I  don't  believe  he 
ever  spoke  a  cross  word  even  to  his  wife. 
That  is  saying  a  good  deal,  is  n't  it,  gen 
tlemen? 

These  are  amiable  and  lovable  personal 
qualities,  but  the  great  thing  was  the 
fact  that  he  succeeded— that  the  Civil  War 
was  ended  under  his  rule.  He  succeeded 

46 


with  the  forces  of  the  anti-slavery  States 
in  putting  down  a  rebellion  in  which  12,- 
000,000  people  were  concerned,  deter 
mined  people,  educated  people,  fighting 
for  their  ideas  and  their  property,  fight 
ing  to  the  last,  fighting  to  the  death.  I 
don't  think  there  is  anything  else  in  his 
tory  to  compare  with  that  achievement. 
How  did  he  do  it? 

In  the  first  place,  he  never  was  in 
haste.  As  I  said,  he  never  took  a  step 
too  soon,  and  also  he  never  took  a  step 
too  late.  When  the  whole  Northern 
country  seemed  to  be  clamoring  for  him 
to  issue  a  proclamation  abolishing  sla 
very,  he  did  n't  do  it.  Deputation  after 
deputation  went  to  Washington.  I  re 
member  once  a  hundred  gentlemen  came, 
dressed  in  black  coats,  mostly  clergymen, 

47 


from  Massachusetts.  They  appealed  to 
him  to  proclaim  the  abolition  of  slavery. 
But  he  did  n't  do  it.  He  allowed  Mr. 
Cameron  and  General  Butler  to  execute 
their  great  idea  of  treating  slaves  as  con 
traband  of  war,  and  of  protecting  those 
who  had  got  into  our  lines  against  being 
recaptured  by  their  Southern  owners; 
but  he  would  not  prematurely  make  the 
proclamation  that  was  so  much  desired. 
Finally  the  time  came,  and  of  that  he 
was  the  judge.  Nobody  else  decided  it; 
nobody  commanded  it;  the  proclamation 
was  issued  as  he  thought  best,  and  it  was 
efficacious.  The  people  of  the  North, 
who  during  the  long  contest  over  slavery 
had  always  stood  strenuously  by  the 
compromises  of  the  Constitution,  might 
themselves  have  become  half  rebels  if 

48 


this  proclamation  had  been  issued  too 
soon.  At  last  they  were  tired  of  waiting, 
tired  of  endeavoring  to  preserve  even  a 
show  of  regard  for  what  was  called  the 
compromises  of  the  Constitution  when 
they  believed  the  Constitution  itself  was 
in  danger.  Thus  public  opinion  was  ripe 
when  the  proclamation  came,  and  that 
was  the  beginning  of  the  end. 

This  unerring  judgment,  this  patience 
which  waited  and  which  knew  when  the 
right  time  had  arrived— these  were  intel 
lectual  qualities  that  I  do  not  find  exer 
cised  upon  any  such  scale  by  any  other 
man  in  history,  and  with  such  unerring 
precision.  This  proves  Abraham  Lincoln 
to  have  been  intdlectually^one  of  the 
greatest  of  rulers.  If  we  look  through 
the  record  of  groat  mon,  whore  has  thore 

49 


ever  been  one  to  be  matched  alongside  of 
him?  I  don't  know.  He  could  have  issued 
this  proclamation  two  years  before,  per 
haps,  and  the  consequence  of  it  might 
have  been  our  entire  defeat;  but  when  it 
came  it  did  its  work,  and  it  did  us  no  harm 
whatever.  Nobody  protested  against  it, 
not  even  the  Confederates  themselves; 
but  they  felt  it  deeply. 

Another  interesting  fact  about  Abra 
ham  Lincoln  is  that  he  developed  into 
a  great  military  man;  that  is  to  say,  a 
man  of  supreme  military  judgment.  I  do 
not  risk  anything  in  saying  that  if  you 
will  study  the  records  of  the  war,  and 
study  the  writings  relating  to  it,  you  will 
agree  with  me  that  the  greatest  general 
we  had,  greater  than  Grant  or  Thomas, 
was  Abraham  Lincoln.  It  was  not  so  at 


the  beginning;  but  after  three  or  four 
years  of  constant  practice  in  the  science 
and  art  of  war,  he  arrived  at  this  extra 
ordinary  knowledge  of  it,  so  that  Von 
Moltke  was  not  a  better  general,  or  an 
abler  planner  or  expounder  of  a  cam 
paign,  than  was  President  Lincoln.  To 
sum  it  up,  he  was  a  born  leader  of  men. 
He  knew  human  nature;  he  knew  what 
chord  to  strike,  and  was  never  afraid  to 
strike  it  when  he  believed  that  the  time 
had  arrived.  On  this  let  me  tell  another 
story. 

Lincoln  was  a  supreme  politician,  and 
he  was  a  politician  who  understood  poli 
tics  because  he  understood  human  nature. 
And  finally  the  idea  was  conceived  that 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
should  be  amended  so  that  slavery  should 

51 


be  prohibited  in  the  Constitution.  That 
was  a  change  in  our  polity,  and  it  was 
also  a  most  important  military  measure. 
It  was  intended,  not  merely  as  a  means 
of  prohibiting  slavery  and  decreeing  its 
abolition,  but  as  a  means  of  affecting  the 
judgment  and  the  feeling  and  the  anti 
cipations  of  those  in  rebellion.  It  was 
believed  that  that  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  would  be  equivalent  to  new 
armies  in  the  field,  equivalent  to  sending 
a  hundred  thousand  men  to  fight,  because 
this  would  be  an  intellectual  army  and 
an  intellectual  force  that  would  tend  to 
paralyze  the  enemy  and  break  the  con 
tinuity  of  his  ideas.  In  order  to  amend 
the  Constitution  it  was  necessary  first  to 
have  the  proposed  amendment  approved 
by  two  thirds  of  the  States;  and  when 

52 


that  question  came  to  be  considered  the 
issue  was  seen  to  be  so  close  that  one 
State  more  was  necessary.  Then  the 
State  of  Nevada  was  organized  to  answer 
that  purpose,  and  was  admitted  into  the 
Union.  I  have  heard  people  sometimes 
complain  of  Nevada  as  a  superfluous  and 
petty  State,  not  big  enough  to  be  a  State; 
but  when  I  hear  that  complaint  I  always 
think  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  saying,  «It 
is  easier  to  admit  Nevada  than  to  raise 
another  million  of  soldiers.)) 

Well,  when  the  question  finally  came 
around  to  be  voted  upon  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  it  required  three  quar 
ters  of  the  votes;  and  this  vote,  this  final 
decision,  was  canvassed  earnestly,  in 
tensely,  most  anxiously,  for  a  long  time 
beforehand.  At  last,  late  one  afternoon, 


the  President  came  into  my  office,  a  room 
in  the  third  story  of  the  War  Department. 
He  used  to  come  there  sometimes  rather 
than  send  for  me,  because  he  was  very 
fond  of  walking,  and  liked  to  go  about  a 
good  deal.  He  came  in,  and  shut  the 
door. 

«Dana,»  he  said,  «I  am  very  anxious 
about  this  vote.  It  has  got  to  be  taken 
next  week.  The  time  is  very  short.  It 
is  going  to  be  a  great  deal  closer  than  I 
wish  it  was.» 

((There  are  plenty  of  Democrats  who 
wish  to  vote  for  it,»  I  replied,  « and  who 
will  vote  for  it.  There  is  James  E.  Eng 
lish  of  Connecticut;  I  think  he  is  sure, 
is  n't  he?» 

«0h  yes;  he  is  sure  on  the  merits  of 
the  question.)) 

54 


« Then,»  said  I,  « there  ys  <  Sunset  >  Cox 
of  Ohio.  How  is  he  ?» 

«He  is  sure  and  fearless.  But  there 
are  some  others  that  I  am  not  clear  about. 
There  are  three  that  you  can  deal  with 
better  than  anybody  else,  perhaps,  as  you 
know  them  all.  I  wish  you  would  send 
for  them.w 

He  told  me  who  they  were;  it  is  n't 
necessary  to  repeat  the  names  here.  One 
man  was  from  New  Jersey  and  two  from 
New  York. 

«What  will  they  be  likely  to  want?»  I 
asked. 

«I  don't  know,))  said  the  President;  «I 
don't  know.  It  makes  no  difference, 
though,  what  they  want.  Here  is  the  al 
ternative:  that  we  carry  this  vote,  or  be 
compelled  to  raise  another  million,  and  I 

55 


don't  know  how  many  more  men,  and  fight 
no  one  knows  how  long.  It  is  a  question 
of  three  votes  or  new  armies.)) 

«Well,  sir,»  said  I,  «what  shall  I  say 
to  these  gentlemen?)) 

«I  don't  know,»  said  he;  «but  I  say 
this  to  you,  that  whatever  promise  you 
make  to  those  men,  I  will  perform  it.» 

Well,  now,  this  is  a  fact  that  I  do  not 
think  is  recorded  in  any  history.  I  don't 
believe  my  friend,  Thomas  C.  Acton,  who 
sits  back  there,  ever  heard  of  it  before. 
I  sent  for  the  men  and  saw  them  one  by 
one.  I  found  that  they  were  afraid  of 
their  party.  They  said  that  some  fellows 
in  the  party  would  be  down  on  them. 
Two  of  them  wanted  internal-revenue 
collectors  appointed.  «You  shall  have 
it,»  I  said.  Another  one  wanted  a  very 

56 


important  appointment  about  the  custom 
house  of  New  York.  I  knew  the  man 
well  whom  he  wanted  to  have  appointed. 
He  was  a  Republican,  though  the  con 
gressman  was  a  Democrat.  I  had  served 
with  him  in  the  Republican  party  County 
Committee  of  New  York.  The  office  was 
worth  perhaps  $20,000  a  year.  When 
the  congressman  stated  the  case  I  asked 
him,  «Do  you  want  that?» 

«  Yes,»  said  he. 

«Well,»  I  answered,  «you  shall  have 
it.» 

«I  understand,  of  course,))  said  he, 
«that  you  are  not  saying  this  on  your 
own  authority?)) 

«  Oh  no,»  said  I;  « I  am  saying  it  on  the 
authority  of  the  President.)) 

Well,  he  voted;  the  amendment  was 

57 


carried,  and  slavery  was  abolished  by 
constitutional  prohibition  in  all  of  the 
United  States.  That  was  done,  and  I  felt 
that  this  little  piece  of  side  politics  was 
one  of  the  most  judicious,  humane,  and 
wise  uses  of  executive  authority  that  I 
had  ever  assisted  in  or  witnessed. 

But  this  appointment  in  the  New  York 
custom-house  was  to  wait  a  few  weeks, 
until  the  term  of  the  actual  incumbent 
had  run  out.  My  friend,  the  Democratic 
congressman,  was  quite  willing.  He  said, 
«That  's  all  right;  I  am  in  no  hurry. » 
Well,  before  the  time  had  expired,  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  murdered  and  Andrew  John 
son  became  President.  I  had  gone  away, 
and  was  in  the  West,  when  one  day  I  got 
a  telegram  from  Roscoe  Conkling: « Come 
to  Washington.))  So  I  went.  He  said: 

58 


«I  want  you  to  go  and  see  President 
Johnson,  and  tell  him  that  this  is  a  sacred 
promise  of  Mr.  Lincoln's,  and  that  it  must 
be  kept.» 

Then  I  went  to  the  White  House,  and 
saw  President  Johnson. 

« This  is  Mr.  Lincoln's  promise,))  I  urged. 
«  He  regarded  it  as  saving  the  necessity 
of  another  call  for  troops,  and  raising 
perhaps  a  million  more  men  to  continue 
the  war.  I  trust,  Mr.  President,  that 
you  will  see  your  way  clear  to  execute 
this  promise.)) 

«  Well,  Mr.  Dana,»  he  replied,  « I  don't 
say  that  I  won't;  but  I  have  observed  in 
the  course  of  my  experience  that  such 
bargains  tend  to  immorality.)) 

The  appointment  was  not  made.  I  am 
happy  to  say,  however,  that  the  gentle- 
so 


man  to  whom  the  promise  was  given 
never  found  any  fault,  either  with  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  or  with  the  Assistant  Sec 
retary  who  had  been  the  means  of  making 
the  promise  to  him. 

There  is  perceptible,  I  think,  a  very 
decided  disposition  to  convert  this  great 
element  in  our  history— the  savior  of  the 
nation,  the  man  who  brought  us  through 
that  terrible  Civil  War  with  our  liberties 
undiminished— to  convert  him  into  a  kind 
of  hero  of  romance,  a  legendary  figure. 
He  is  sometimes  thought  to  have  been 
queer  and  eccentric,  and  there  are  a  good 
many  stories  that  seem  to  favor  that  idea. 
I  never  found  anything  eccentric  in  him. 
I  found  only  wisdom  and  humor— humor 
that  never  failed,  and  that  always  was 
fresh,  delightful,  and  relieving  to  the 


awful  seriousness  of  the  duties  that  we 
were  engaged  in  every  day. 

I  remember  one  evening,  just  before 
the  Presidential  election  of  '64.  The  de 
cision,  it  was  plain,  would  turn  on  the  vote 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  State  election  of 
Pennsylvania,  which  then  took  place  in 
October,  a  month  before  the  Presidential 
election,  was  pretty  sure  to  show  how 
the  Presidential  election  would  go  in  that 
State.  So,  on  the  evening  of  the  day 
when  that  election  had  been  held,  we 
were  all  gathered  in  the  War  Depart 
ment,  the  President,  Mr.  Stanton,  Chief 
Justice  Chase,  Mr.  Welles,  and  the  prin 
cipal  generals  that  were  then  in  Wash 
ington.  Perhaps  there  were  twenty 
gentlemen  there.  When  I  came  in,  at 
about  ten  o'clock,  the  President  said  to 

61 


me,  «Come  here,  Dana;  sit  down  here.» 
So  I  sat  down  beside  him.  The  others 
were  all  sitting  around,  as  solemn  as  a 
camp-meeting. 

Indeed,  it  was  a  pretty  solemn  occa 
sion,  because  on  the  decision  of  this  elec 
tion  hung  the  question  whether  we  were 
there  or  were  not  there.  The  President 
looked  over  to  me,  and  said,  «Did  you 
ever  read  anything  of  Petroleum  V.  Nas- 
by?»  I  answered,  «Yes.»  «Well,»  he 
said,  «I  want  to  read  you  something.)) 
So  he  began  to  read  just  loud  enough  for 
me  to  hear.  Mr.  Stanton  could  n't  stand 
this.  He  got  up,  and  went  off  into  the 
telegraph  room  that  was  just  alongside. 
Presently  he  opened  the  door,  and  called 
me:  «I  have  got  something  foryou.»  So 
I  went  into  the  telegraph  office.  I  found 

62 


that  he  had  n't  any  work  for  me.  He 
simply  wanted  to  objurgate  the  man  who 
could  sit  down  at  such  a  time  and  read 
such  silly,  stupid  stuff  as  that.  But  that 
constant  humor  which  Mr.  Lincoln  infused 
into  everything  was  really  what  saved 
him,  and  brought  him  through  the  whole 
of  this  immense  suffering  and  struggle  in 
good  health  and  spirits  at  last. 

I  ought  to  say  that  this  disposition 
that  I  have  just  referred  to,  to  invent 
queer  stories  about  Mr.  Lincoln,  is  get 
ting  corrected.  The  life  of  him  which 
Mr.  McClure  is  now  publishing,  and  which 
Miss  Ida  Tarbell  is  writing,  is  based  upon 
a  thorough  investigation  of  the  facts  in 
his  history,  and  his  family's  history,  and 
the  history  of  his  childhood,  and  the  ex 
perience  of  the  family  in  Kentucky,  In- 


diana,  and  Illinois— an  investigation  that 
has  not  been  made  before.  It  proves,  in 
the  first  place,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not 
come  of  a  trifling,  silly,  or  stupid  family. 
He  belonged  to  the  Lincolns  of  Hingham, 
Massachusetts,  and  he  was  related  to  the 
famous  Governor  Lincoln.  Many  stories 
about  his  marriage,  too,  are  not  so.  Lin 
coln  was  a  straight,  upright,  respectable 
man.  He  was  a  poor  man,  picking  up 
knowledge  as  best  he  could,  and  rising 
by  his  own  talent,  until  he  reached  a 
great  place  in  the  bar  of  Illinois,  and 
finally  became  President  of  the  United 
States. 

I  regard  the  book  which  Mr.  McClure 
is  publishing  as  a  public  benefaction. 
With  this  book  presenting  all  these 
minute  details,  and  with  the  great  work 

64 


of  Hay  and  Nicolay,  Mr.  Lincoln's  private 
secretaries,  giving  the  most  important 
documents,  we  shall  have  amply  satis 
factory  and  faithful  accounts  of  perhaps 
the  greatest  man  in  modern  American 
history,  perhaps  the  greatest  man  in  the 
modern  history  of  mankind. 

Let  me  bring  these  reminiscences  to  a 
close  with  another  story,  which  relates 
to  the  last  day  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  life.  It 
was  one  of  my  duties  in  the  War  Depart 
ment  to  receive  the  reports  of  the  officers 
of  the  Secret  Service  in  every  part  of  the 
country.  One  cloudy  afternoon  I  got  a 
telegram  from  the  provost-marshal  in 
Portland,  Maine,  saying,  «I  have  posi 
tive  information  that  Jacob  Thompson 
will  pass  through  Portland  to-night,  in 
order  to  take  a  steamer  for  England. 

65 


What  are  your  orders?))  Jacob  Thomp 
son  of  Mississippi,  as  you  know,  had 
been  Secretary  of  the  Interior  in  Presi 
dent  Buchanan's  administration.  He  was 
a  conspicuous  secessionist,  and  for  some 
time  had  been  employed  in  Canada  as  a 
semi-diplomatic  agent  of  the  Confederate 
government,  getting  up  raids,  of  which 
the  notorious  attack  on  St.  Albans,  Ver 
mont,  was  a  specimen.  I  took  the  tele 
gram,  and  went  down  and  read  it  to  Mr. 
Stanton.  His  order  was  prompt:  ((Ar 
rest  him! »  But  as  I  was  going  out  of  the 
door  he  called  to  me,  and  said,  «  No,  wait; 
better  go  over  and  see  the  President.)) 

At  the  White  House  all  business  was 
over,  and  I  went  into  the  President's 
business  room  without  meeting  any  one. 
Opening  the  door,  there  seemed  to  be  no 


one  in  the  room,  but  as  I  was  turning 
to  go  out  Mr.  Lincoln  called  me  from  a 
little  side  room,  where  he  was  washing 
his  hands: 

«  Halloo,  Dana ! »  said  he.  «  What  is  it  ? 
What 'sup? » 

Then  I  read  him  the  telegram. 

«  What  does  Stanton  say?»  he  asked. 

«  He  says  arrest  him,  but  that  I  should 
refer  the  question  to  you.» 

«Well,»  said  he,  slowly,  wiping  his 
hands,  «no;  I  rather  think  not.  When 
you  have  got  an  elephant  by  the  hind 
leg,  and  he  is  trying  to  run  away,  it  's 
best  to  let  him  run.» 

With  this  direction,  I  returned  to  the 
War  Department. 

«Well,  what  says  he?»  asked  Mr. 
Stanton. 

67 


«  He  says  that  when  you  have  got  an 
elephant  by  the  hind  leg,  and  he  is  trying 
to  run  away,  it 's  best  to  let  him  run.» 

«0h,  stuff!))  said  Stanton. 

That  night  I  was  awaked  from  a  sound 
sleep  with  the  news  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had 
been  shot,  and  that  the  Secretary  wanted 
me  at  Manager  Ford's  house.  I  found 
the  President  lying  unconscious,  though 
breathing  heavily,  on  a  bed  in  a  small 
side  room,  while  all  the  members  of  the 
cabinet,  and  the  Chief  Justice  with  them, 
were  gathered  in  the  adjoining  parlor. 
They  seemed  to  be  almost  as  much  para 
lyzed  as  the  unconscious  sufferer  within 
the  little  chamber.  The  surgeons  said 
there  was  no  hope.  Mr.  Stanton  alone 
was  in  full  activity. 

«  Sit  down  here,))  said  he; « I  want  you.» 

68 


Then  he  began,  and  dictated  orders 
one  after  another,  which  I  wrote  out  and 
sent  swiftly  to  the  telegraph.  All  those 
orders  were  designed  to  keep  the  busi 
ness  of  the  government  in  full  motion  till 
the  crisis  should  be  over.  It  was  per 
haps  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  before 
he  said,  «  That 's  enough.  Now  you  can 
go  home.» 

The  next  morning,  just  about  daylight, 
I  was  awaked  by  a  rapping  on  a  lower 
window.  It  was  Colonel  Pelouze  of  the 
Adjutant-General's  office,  who  said: 

«  Mr.  Dana,  the  President  is  dead,  and 
Mr.  Stanton  directs  you  to  arrest  Jacob 
Thompson.)) 

The  order  was  sent  to  Portland,  but 
Thompson  could  n't  be  found  there.  He 
had  taken  the  Canadian  road  to  Halifax. 

69 


And  so  Lincoln  finished  his  marvelous 
career  and  passed  to  the  other  world, 
leaving  other  men  to  deal  with  the 
arduous  and  perilous  questions  of  recon 
struction.  He  had,  indeed,  done  enough, 
and  it  may  be  he  was  even  fortunate  in 
the  tragedy  of  his  death.  Who  knows? 

But,  as  we  bid  him  farewell  to-night, 
we  can  declare  that  while  he  was  great 
in  genius,  in  character,  and  in  opportu 
nities,  he  was  even  greater  in  sanity  of 
heart  and  elevation  of  spirit.  While  he 
was  entirely  human,  there  was  no  mean 
fiber  in  his  composition,  no  base,  petty, 
selfish  impulse  in  his  soul. 


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